Colchester Commission on Aging
Meeting Minutes
Monday, September 12, 2011 – Colchester Senior Center
Members Present: Chairperson Rose Levine, Jean Stawicki, Goldie Liverant, Marilyn Finnegan,
Rob Gustafson, Herb Davis, Sue Maikshilo
Members Absent: Vice-Chair Theresa Hendricksen, Betty Ann Oppelt
Others Present: Patti White, Rosemary Coyle
1. Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order by Chair Rose Levine at 1:06 p.m.
2. Minutes: Jean Stawicki motioned to approve the regular meeting minutes of 8/8/11.
Sue Maikshilo seconded. All other members present voted in favor. MOTION CARRIED.
3.Financial Report: Patti White reported that $328.00 was collected for transportation in the
month of August. 0f that, $84.00 was for out of town trips. There is a $3,500 budget line item in the
town’s general fund that monies are deposited into.
4.Chairman’s Report: Rose Levine confirmed that the ‘Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s
Disease or Any Other Dementia’ program will be on September 27th from 7-9 pm. There will be a
Geriatrician, a Dementia Care Manager and an R.N. presenting. There was discussion regarding
compiling a resource guide for seniors and their families listing senior and social resources in the
Colchester area. Rose will bring a worksheet to the next meeting for each member to begin compiling
the information. She asked members to start thinking of a name. Rosemary Coyle suggested adding
the Tax Relief Information.
5.Senior Center Director’s Report: Patti White reported that the center was without power for
only a day and a half and was up and running by Wednesday. They identified people that are homebound,
meals-on-wheels recipients and made sure everyone had a plan in place. The drivers had to go out to
check on some because their phones were out. They were available to transport people to the emergency
shelters. There was discussion regarding how to promote community helping each other in these cases.
The Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon will be held on September 27th. Please RSVP to Patti so they can get
an accurate food count.
6.Senior/Community Center Building Committee Update: Goldie Liverant and Herb Davis meeting with
Gregg Schuster went well. Gregg recommended that Commission on Aging, Youth Services and Parks & Rec
all have liaisons that attend the building committee meetings. Rosemary thought the building committee
appointments would be on the Board of Selectmen’s next agenda. Goldie stated that the Commission should
continue to push to keep the center development on track with the Board of Ed agenda. She added that
the architect needs to be aware of bonding timelines and they should also know about senior centers as
well as schools.
7.Old Business:
A.Bylaw Review: Marilyn Finnegan motioned to approve the following changes to Article I of the
bylaws: A. ‘Regular meetings of the Commission shall be held at 1:00 pm on the second Monday of each
month’ changed to “The time and place for regular meetings shall be set by the Commission each November
for the upcoming year’ and E. ‘Alternate members may attend all meetings’ changed to ‘Alternate members
shall attend all meetings’. Seconded by Sue Maikshilo. All other members present voted in favor. MOTION
CARRIED.
B.Goals of Commission on Aging: Rob Gustafson reported on the handyman program in Bolton.
Rosemary suggested involving Youth Services and Parks & Rec. Rob and Herb volunteered to identify a
list of possible needs to begin with. From there they will make goals and begin to build the program from there.
8. New Business: Jean Stawicki reported that she attended the Observe vs. Admit program given
by Senior Resources on August 18th. They explained that if a hospital can’t determine whether admittance
to a hospital would be covered by Medicare, they will keep you for observation until they can substantiate
admittance. Medicare will not reimburse a hospital until a patient has been admitted for 3 qualifying days.
Jean added that generally speaking, if the patient is stable they would not meet the criteria for reimbursement.
It was agreed that this is a good topic for a speaker, possibly in another 4 to 6 months.
9.Adjournment: Jean Stawicki motioned to adjourn the meeting at 2:46 pm. Sue Maikshilo seconded
the motion. All other members present voted in favor. MOTION CARRIED.
Respectfully submitted,
Michelle Komoroski
| 
